I’m literally a complete beginner, and I’ve just started playing Zelda BOTW in japanese. Easy stuff, like translating single words connected to the controls or items seems pretty good and I feel it sticks quite well. However, the dialogues are very overwhelming. Of course I can find the meaning of whole sentences through translation, but figuring out what constitutes single words, and how the grammar functions, is really tricky and most times feel impossible. I have heard several people here finding video games as a good, and of course hard, way to learn, so I’m wondering if any of you have useful tips for making the process more smooth.
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For a second I thought you meant Best of the Worst and got stoked that there may be other Japanese learners who are also Redlettermedia fans…
I think immersion kit has the entire story dialog in botw transcribed and with translations. Could be helpful for creating anku decks.
I’m not sure about general strategies for games though. I think usually playing games without the necessary vocab and grammar knowledge is just not recommended.
I dunno if BOTW does, but I wanted to point out that Windwaker has furigana in the text boxes!
>most times feel impossible
That’s because it is. You cannot just learn kana and then jump immediately into a native material and hope to learn by just looking everything up as you go. You have to do some kind of study with something that has been geared for learners before you can go to native sources.
People who talk about using video games for learning are not talking about starting literally from day 1 with a video game.
I don’t usually play games at all, but I played BOTW in Japanese. It’s way too hard. You’re way to early to start using native material, but if you’re inpatient I’d just stick to something way easier like Pokémon or Domori. Pokémon is for kids so it barely has any kanji. Domori is a step up, but pretty useful.
before that you have to at least have knowledge of N3 vocabulary and grammar. If you’re a begginer it will become boring to you to study that way because you won’t enjoy the content og what you’re playing believe me.
it would be better if you make some studies of grammar and vocabulary before.
I’d imagine you’d actually have to learn some Japanese before tackling video games and media
Playing a game seems like a really difficult and inefficient way to learn
You need to do a heap of study before you can jump in to games, otherwise they will just be Japanese themed leisure and not actual study. You really want to understand grammar to N3 level or you won’t even be able to parse the sentences even if you manage to look up each word. Even easy games are actually kind of hard because without kanji you need to guess the word from context. I would just grind Genki 1 and 2 out with an online tutor to get to playing games ASAP.